Another week, another Toddler Food post. ☺ Admittedly, I’m still catching up, so these photos were from quite some time ago… Uh, probably from around Valentine’s Day given all of the heart-shaped food. Oy. Either way, here’s some of what Miss G’s eaten semi-recently.

The one question I get asked as a mom, far more than anything else is, “How do you get Gracen to eat the way she does?” And the usual follow-up questions include, “Has she always been open to trying new foods and flavours?” and “Is there anything she doesn’t like?!”

While I’ve given my take on it here and there in the comments sections of my Toddler Food posts, I’ve never included the answer in an actual post because the truth is, I don’t really know how she became such a good eater. {And perhaps I’m a wee bit afraid of talking about it too much and jinxing it all. ☺} Is it because of the way we introduced food to her? Is it because of the way we currently handle meal times and eating in general? Was she just born a good eater? Likely it’s a combination of all of those things… But I can’t be sure.

That being said, since I continue to get requests for eating tips each week, I’m going to share what we did and what works for us.

It all started while I was pregnant actually… Other than the first few weeks, I had a really good pregnancy. I felt well and could eat {small portions} of anything I wanted (other than meat) without feeling sick, so I made sure to nourish our growing baby the best I could while she was still in the womb. Right away, I cut out all refined sugars, caffeine, and unhealthy fats. I filled my diet with healthy fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans and nuts, and ate a variety of flavours, spices, herbs. (Did you know that your baby tastes the flavours of what you eat through the amniotic fluid? They do! Cool, eh?) And I continued to do the same once she was born so that she’d still be experiencing a wide variety of flavours through the breast milk she was drinking.

When she was 6 1/2 months old and we decided to introduce solids, I made all of her food at home and included those same herbs, spices, and flavourings she’d already become accustomed to into her first foods (bananas with cinnamon, carrots with dill, spinach with nutmeg, and curried chicken were some of her favourites). During our brief time with purees, I also made sure to vary the textures of the foods so that everything wasn’t always just smooth – some were slightly chunky, others were quite chunky, and she got used to them all from the get go.

After eating purees for about a month, we basically transitioned her over to a baby-led weaning style of eating. I ensured that our food was fresh, flavourful, and full of variation, as well as free of salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats, and she began eating chunks of our family meal (no separate “kid food” here!) from about 7 1/2 or 8 months on.

There have definitely been things she hasn’t liked along the way. Potatoes (of any sort) were a big flop for a long time, she had a short stint of not enjoying cheese, and she’s never liked raw tomatoes (but then again, I don’t blame her for that one – they’re one of the few foods I despise also!) Right now, she’s not a fan of raw leafy greens though she happily ate them from the age of 1 until just after 2. Do we force her to eat the things she doesn’t like or want? Absolutely not. But we don’t stop offering them either. To this day, I’ll still put a grape tomato on her plate if they’re part of the meal we’re eating. And no, she never eats the whole thing, but sometimes she does try them, which is just fine with me.

There are a few other things we do that I think help Miss G to remain a good eater… First off, she’s involved in a lot of the cooking and food prep in our house, and I always feel like kids are more likely to eat foods that they’ve helped make. Secondly, I make one meal and we all sit down and eat together as a family. No Gracen eats first and we eat once she’s in bed, no separate kid meal, and no television on during meals. She sees us trying new things and she’s usually happy to try them too. And lastly, and I hope it doesn’t sound too harsh, there’s no other option available if you don’t want to eat the meal that’s been prepared. She never has to eat if she doesn’t want to, but we won’t give her a bowl of yogurt or a banana or something else in place of the meal she has in front of her. If she wants to be done and hasn’t eaten a whole lot, we simply save the meal for her to come back to later when she’s feeling hungry.

Now we just have to hope that I haven’t jinxed it all and she continues to be a fantastic little eater. ☺

Alright, so after that long-winded explanation, here’s some of what our little lady has eaten lately…

Another week, another Toddler Food post… But before we get on with the photos, here’s a question I received last week:

What is Miss G’s eating schedule? How many meals does she eat per day? And how much milk does she drink? Do you limit it?

Alright, this one is actually pretty simple. Gracen eats 3 full meals a day, plus morning and afternoon snacks. As far as a schedule goes, she eats breakfast a little while after she wakes up, which normally ends up being around 7:30 a.m. Then, a couple of hours later, around 9:30 or 10:00, she has a small snack… Usually something like fruit slices, raw veggies, or nuts. By the time noon rolls around, she’s ready for lunch. We eat, clean up, do our regular nap time routine, and then she goes to sleep. She normally sleeps from about 1:00 to 3:00 p.m., and when she wakes up, she’s ready for her afternoon snack. Later on in the evening, normally just before 6:00, we have dinner, and that’s her last meal for the day.

As far as milk is concerned, yes, we absolutely limit her intake. She loves good, healthy foods, but that’s not to say that she wouldn’t fill up on milk if it was limitless. She has milk 3 times a day – with breakfast, after her nap, and with dinner. For each serving she gets a small cup, about half full, and other than that, she drinks water.

Alright… I hope that answers that! Now onto what Miss G’s been eating lately…

Whether it’s Valentine’s Day, St. Patricks Day, or Halloween, one of the things I love most about holidays is preparing special themed meals and snacks for our little lady. Here is some Halloween-inspired food she enjoyed this year…

Breakfast // Wholewheat flax spiderweb pancakes. (Just put your pancake batter into a squeeze bottle, use it to draw an asterisk, then connect the points with swooped lines.)

Snack // Jack-o-lantern oranges. (G seriously couldn’t get enough of these. Simply draw a face on a room temperature orange with black Sharpie. I did mine just before giving them to her – I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I’m not especially keen on the possibility of the marker fumes seeping through the peel.)